1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to hardware manageability support systems in network environments. More particularly, the present invention relates to systems that deliver alerts in local area network, wide area network, enterprise network environments, and the like.
2. Description of Related Art
In its simplest form, data communication takes place between two devices that are directly connected by some form of point-to-point transmission medium. However, in certain instances it is impractical for two devices or components to be directly, point-to-point connected. An example of such an instance is when there are a set of devices, each of which way require a link to many of the others at various times. This problem has been heretofore addressed by attaching multiple devices to a communication network. Each device, or station, is attached to a network node. The set of nodes to which stations attach is the boundary of a communication network that is capable of transferring data between pairs of stations.
Communication networks may be categorized based on the architecture and the techniques used to transfer data. Two major different types of communication networks are switched networks and broadcast networks. Switched networks involve transfer of data from a source to a destination through a series of intermediate nodes that provide a switching facility to move the data from node to node. Examples of switched communication networks include circuit switched networks, message switched networks, and packet switched networks. Broadcast networks involve no intermediate switching nodes; each station has a transmitter/receiver that allows communication over a common medium, so that a transmission from any one station is broadcast to and received by all other stations in the network. Examples of broadcast communication networks include packet radio networks, satellite networks, and local networks.
The present invention is especially designed to operate in packet-broadcasting networks such as local area networks (xe2x80x9cLANSxe2x80x9d), wide area networks (xe2x80x9cWANSxe2x80x9d), enterprise network environments (xe2x80x9centerprise environmentsxe2x80x9d) and the like. As those skilled in the art should appreciate, the terms LANs, WANs and enterprise environments have constantly evolving meanings. In general, however, a LAN is a general-purpose local network supporting personal computers (xe2x80x9cPCsxe2x80x9d), a WAN is a general-purpose network supporting a wide area relative to a LAN (usually because it passes through a public switched telephone network at least in part), and an enterprise environment is a general-purpose network supporting mini computers and mainframes. LANs, WANs, and enterprise environments can also support any number of other peripherals (e.g., printers), and quite often carry voice, video, and graphics as well as data. To assist those presently familiar with and skilled in the art in understanding what is meant by the various network terms used herein, the term LAN as used herein encompasses Novell NetWare, SCO UNIX, Banyan VINES, Microsoft LAN Manager, and the like. Further, the term enterprise environment as used herein encompasses IBM SNA Management Services, DEC Enterprise Management Architecture, ATandT Unified Network Management Architecture, SNMP-Based Management Stations, Hewlett-Packard""s OPENVIEW, and the like.
As will become apparent from the detailed description of the invention section below, the present invention may be viewed as an alert delivery system servicing a number of system components that supplement conventional network components to enhance management functions. These conventional network components include network management agents and network manager consoles. Underlying both of these components is a network operating system (xe2x80x9cOSxe2x80x9d). The OS is software, firmware, or hardware that controls the execution of processes in a system. Services provided by an OS can include resource allocation scheduling, input/out control, and data management. The theory behind an OS is to provide support in a single spot so that each program does not need to be concerned with controlling hardware. A network management agent is a part of the OS. The network management agent is the central collection point for a particular server""s network management information. Typically, the information is stored in an object oriented format for use by xe2x80x9cnetwork managerxe2x80x9d software that runs on the network such as a remote console or IBM""s Netview. A network manager console, the second component mentioned above, is generally provided as an optional component piece of an OS network management package. Typically, the network manager console allows one central point of monitoring and control for a network administrator""s domain of interest. From the console the administrator can view and control the object registered with the network management agent. The network manager console represents one type of manager software connected over the internet (i.e., interconnected networks) with the network management agent. Other network manager software can also make use of the information in the management agent.
Two other concepts that should be fully understood to appreciate the present invention are xe2x80x9cin-bandxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cout-of-bandxe2x80x9d. The term in-band is used herein to refer to signals sent via network management software residing locally on the server. In simple terms, in-band refers to use of the wire that comes with a network. The term out-of-band refers to communications that leave the computer system manager (discussed length in the related case so titled) via an asynchronous port. Although the out-of-band concept will be discussed in much greater detail below, it should be appreciated that asynchronous transmission is involved, that is, transmission in which each information character is individually synchronized, usually by the use of start elements and stop elements.
Although network managers have heretofore been able to provide an acceptable level of network management, the constant improvements being made in networks betray the fact that many improvements can still yet be made. For example, it is important that the system software or the network manager be notified about significant or potentially significant events occurring or about to occur in the network. Alerts perform such a function. However, prior art alert delivery systems have a number of shortcomings and defects. For example, prior art alert delivery systems are limited as to the number and types of alert receivers, the alert transmission media that can be used, capability for retrying, and effectiveness of the underlying algorithm, to name just a few.
The present invention overcomes the shortcomings and deficiencies of the prior art by providing an in-band/out-of-band alert delivery system for a computer system manager including an alert log which maintains a record of alerts to be delivered and the status of those alerts, an alert manager for making a first attempt to deliver each alert, and a retry manager for making subsequent attempts to deliver alerts as becomes necessary and appropriate.
In embodiments of the alert delivery system of the present invention there may be a bus master interface manager for making in-band alert deliveries and a communications manager for making out-of-band alert deliveries. Telephone numbers may be provided to the communications manager by an alert destination list. Out-of-band alert deliveries may be made via a modem, a universal asynchronous receiver transmitter, or the like.
According to the teachings of the present invention, out-of-band deliveries may be made to pagers, telephones and remote consoles via asynchronous lines. The underlying algorithm in embodiments of the present invention is designed for maximum success rate, via exhaustive retrying, in delivering alerts.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved alert delivery system for incorporation into data communication network environments.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an in-band/out-of-band alert delivery system with a persistent retrying capability.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide an in-band/out-of-band alert delivery system for a computer system manager that is able to deliver alerts to many different types of alert receivers including pagers, telephones and remote consoles.
Still yet another object of the present invention is to provide an in-band/out-of-band alert delivery system for a computer system manager which operates based upon a very effective xe2x80x9cunderlyingxe2x80x9d algorithm.